Furuno FI-50 instruments, finally here

... written for Panbo by Ben Ellison and posted on Aug 14, 2008

As of yesterday, Furuno’s FI-50 (aka FI50) instrument family is officially available in the U.S. and Canada, and thoroughly documented at FurunoUSA. I’m a bit chagrined as I thought they’d be out much sooner, in fact chose them for a Pittman Innovation award that was partially predicated on them being out sooner. Oh well, ship dates slip…and I understand that part of the delay was perfecting FI-50 compatibility with Simrad’s somewhat quirky AT10 NMEA 0183/2000 converter. Which is good for anyone wanting to, say, use FI-50s with 0183 wind and depth data already available on their vessel (and especially good, Furuno-wise, for NavNet 1 and 2 owners who want to add the instruments). Plus the premises of my award choice have withstood actually testing some FI-50s for a while…

For instance, the FI-50’s power efficient (“less than 0.1 amps” 12v) and auto-backlit OLED screens are exceptionally readable in most all light conditions. And the use of standard NMEA 2000 connectors with SimNet- and SeaTalkNG-style daisy chaining possible—first seen last Oct., below, and discussed here—seems to work nicely (even if NMEA doesn’t like it). Later I learned about Furuno’s unusual approach to N2K sensor calibration and like that too. But amongst all the N2K instruments I’ve tried, and tried to differentiate in PMY, the FI50s are in a graphic sense old school. You won’t find bottom or wind speed graphs, or helpful text and icons to guide you through set ups. If you’re considering them, it’s good idea (always a good idea) to download the manuals from FurunoUSA and see what you’re getting in to, especially at $595 per FI50 gauge. Also note in the FI-50 brochure that the multi-line Digital does not understand all the PGN data messages that the single-line Multi does, and neither can do fuel management calculations, yet.By the way, rumor has it that Furuno is working on its own 0183–2000 converter, with standard connectors I’m sure, and maybe also a color/N2K update to the versatile RD30 data display. It took Furuno longer than many to get on the NMEA 2000 bus, but, boy, did they.

Comments

I've had the FI50's installed for about six weeks on my boat and I can confirm both the low power consumption and the excellent visibility. They do have some issues with polarized sun glasses when viewed off angle, as do most LED displays. I would also like to see a lot more versatility in the Digital display. However, they have calibrated the input from a generic Airmar DST2000 without any problem.

Furuno make solid, reliable kit. I only wish that it looked better. I think displays like this would be more at home on a gas station pump. This kind of 7 segment display is a throwback. It's especially poor in the smaller type, look at WSPD where the letter 'D' looks like an 'O' with two wings.
Garmin, Raymarine and Maretron can give us clear normal looking figures and text, why not Furuno.
How about soft keys, instead of printing additional functions on a 90's style bezel.
Furuno, get some new designers and give us solid, reliable, good looking kit.

The daylight visibility on the Garmin isn't very good; it's not a transflective display. Really I want less information which is extremely readable, and the FI504 is simple, flexible and readable. I think the ST70 and the GMI10 want to be MFDs.

So for this application, it's the cat's meow. Also, it's way better than Ockam or BandG or NKE or Nexus.

Olsonist: Ah ... a real performance racing boat and a beauty too. No doubt your going to put a few displays on the mast, and these Furuno's are perrrrfect.

Check out this race analysis software link below. As your designing your new system you might want to consider finding a handy way to capture the GPS, wind, and other data so you can run it thru this analysis software. They even mention the earlier version of the Airmar weather station (you asked me questions about) among the tested configuations they have for their product.

I bought a copy of this software under a promotion where they created an image of my sailboat for the software to use with the on the water play back feature. I look forward to using it this spring when I splash my boat.

Yeah, I'm all over the Weathergage folks, and I already have the Maretron USB100 Gateway to get the data into a laptop.

The Express is getting a thorough refit, new deck, new winches, .... The new electronics is completely NMEA 2000 and and the transducers are completely ultrasonic. Most of the finishing touches I learned here from you, Ben and the other Panbots.

I've had 7 of the FI-50's installed on my boat since last spring. You are correct that the 504's are simple and don't consume much power. I've found the off angle viewing to be somewhat problematic, particularly with polaroid sunglasses. At night I found the off angle viewing to be more restricted, and the dimmest setting to be too bright on ocean passages.

The 501 is particularly bad at night with a fairly large outline around the digital display that obscures the needle in the down wind running angles. You'll never use it to see if you're by-the-lee at night.

I suggest getting one and checking the readability during the day at the angles you expect to view them, and then also at night. You may want to adjust he contrast levels and see if it helps the night viewing.

I had some very early units which had bugs in the firmware, but were later updated and solved the problems. My firmware is now at A0113 and B0101.

Russ,
Great comments. This is the feedback that really helps when choosing equipment such as this (read: expensive and permanent). So my question is what would you choose instead of the FI-50 gear? I hate brightness at night, and the other shortcomings you mention seem annoying as well. I do like the old-school look though.
Thanks,
Ian

Looks like Furuno is updating their "old school" look with an RD33 Remote Display multi purpose display, at least in Japan. It can connect via "N2K" (aka CAN bus ha). LEN is 6 though, I guess that is to be expected.

There's a little RD33 info on the Furunousa website, including an operators manual. http://www.furunousa.com/ProductDocuments/RD33%20Operator's%20Manual%20A%20%201-2010.pdf. To me, the most interesting part is the 9.5 Input/Output section, where the "CAN" to 0183 translation is discussed. On the surface, it looks more through than either the Simrad or Actisense bridge units. I wish they'd publish the transmit frequencies; it dosen't look as though they could transmit all the NMEA 0183 sentences at one per second. They must slow some transmissions down like the Simrad AT-10 does.